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Anubis
Anubis is the Egyptian God of death, Burial, Embalming, Funerals, Cemeteries and Mummification. His parents are Nephthys and Set but he was raised by Osiris and Isis. He is keeper of the Ways of Death History In Egypt's Early Dynastic period (c. 3100 – c. 2686 BC), Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a "jackal" head and body. A "jackal" god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, and other pharaohs of the First Dynasty. Since Predynastic Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, "jackals" had been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers which uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh. In the spirit of "fighting like with like," a "jackal" was chosen to protect the dead, because "a common problem (and cause of concern) must have been the digging up of bodies, shortly after burial, by jackals and other wild dogs which lived on the margins of the cultivation." The oldest known textual mention of Anubis is in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 – c. 2181 BC), where he is associated with the burial of the pharaoh. Appearance In his jackal form, Anubis is sleek, black, and graceful and wears a golden collar. In his human form, Anubis looks around sixteen and possesses a pale complexion, tousled black hair, and warm, melting brown eyes. He wears black jeans, combat boots, a ripped t-shirt, a gold chain, and a black leather jacket. Anubis also possesses a jackal-headed form. Like all gods, his true, divine form is too intense for humans to see. Personality Anubis is described as being in a good mood once every eon or so and in accordance with that is somewhat moody. He occasionally becomes mildly flustered if he speaks without thinking Despite being over five thousand years old, Anubis claims he feels young; this may account for the rather young appearance he had chosen. He has a tendency to tilt his head when curious or confused, seeming rather dog-like. Abilities Anubis may inhabit any graveyard or place of death or mourning without using a host. He may also summon mummy wrappings and shape them into objects, such as a bench to sit upon. He is also able to change his shape from jackal to human and any other form he wishes. He can use this to sometimes project illusions into the minds of others. He also appears to be able to create portals in-and-out of the Duat and anywhere he wants. He may be able to manipulate darkness and he is able to communicate with the dead, appear invisible to mortals, control the souls of others, and many other possible powers. Roles Protector of tombs In contrast to real wolves, Anubis was a protector of graves and cemeteries. Several epithets attached to his name in Egyptian texts and inscriptions referred to that role. Khenty-imentiu, which means "foremost of the westerners" and later became the name of a different wolf god, alluded to his protecting function because the dead were usually buried on the west bank of the Nile. He took other names in connection with his funerary role, such as "He who is upon his mountain" (tepy-dju-ef) – keeping guard over tombs from above – and "Lord of the sacred land" (neb-ta-djeser), which designates him as a god of the desert necropolis. Most ancient tombs had prayers to Anubis carved on them. Embalmer As "He who is in the place of embalming" (imy-ut), Anubis was associated with mummification. He was also called "He who presides over the god's pavilion" (khanty-she-netjer), in which "pavilion" could be refer either to the place where embalming was carried out, or the pharaoh's burial chamber. In the Osiris myth, Anubis helped Isis to embalm Osiris. Indeed, when the Osiris myth emerged, it was said that after Osiris had been killed by Set, Osiris's organs were given to Anubis as a gift. With this connection, Anubis became the patron god of embalmers; during the rites of mummification, illustrations from the Book of the Dead often show a wolf-mask-wearing priest supporting the upright mummy. Guide of souls By the late pharaonic era (664–332 BC), Anubis was often depicted as guiding individuals across the threshold from the world of the living to the afterlife. Though a similar role was sometimes performed by the cow-headed Hathor, Anubis was more commonly chosen to fulfill that function. Greek writers from the Roman period of Egyptian history designated that role as that of "psychopomp", a Greek term meaning "guide of souls" that they used to refer to their own god Hermes, who also played that role in Greek religion. Funerary art from that period represents Anubis guiding either men or women dressed in Greek clothes into the presence of Osiris, who by then had long replaced Anubis as ruler of the underworld. Weighing of the heart The "weighing of the heart," from the book of the dead of Hunefer. Anubis is portrayed as both guiding the deceased forward and manipulating the scales, under the scrutiny of the ibis-headed Thoth. One of the roles of Anubis was as the "Guardian of the Scales." The critical scene depicting the weighing of the heart, in the Book of the Dead, shows Anubis performing a measurement that determined whether the person was worthy of entering the realm of the dead (the underworld, known as Duat). By weighing the heart of a deceased person against Ma'at (or "truth"), who was often represented as an ostrich feather, Anubis dictated the fate of souls. Souls heavier than a feather would be devoured by Ammit, and souls lighter than a feather would ascend to a heavenly existence. Category:Immortals Category:Gods Category:Males Category:Underworld gods Category:Death gods Category:Egyptian gods